Structural wall, roof, or floor panels (collectively “structural panels”) are used in commercial or industrial construction (and in some cases residential construction), for example, in commercial buildings, industrial buildings, institutional buildings, or the like. Structural panels, may be typically manufactured from steel sheets, which may or may not be coiled. In order to increase the structural strength and the stiffness of the individual steel sheets, structural panels with longitudinal flutes are formed from the steel sheets via roll forming, break forming, bending, stamping, or other like processes. The structural panels are secured to each other in order to form a structural panel system when installed (e.g., wall system, roof system, floor system, or combination thereof). The structural panels are also connected to the other load resisting structural support members of a building, such as studs, joists, support beams, or the like to create the structural panel system.
In geographic regions that are prone to seismic activity (e.g., earthquakes) and/or high winds, the structural panels are solidly connected to each other and to the other load resisting structural members of the building so that the building is better able to withstand shear forces (e.g., in-plane and out-of-plane shear forces) created by the seismic activity and/or high winds. The structural panels are connected to reduce, or eliminate excessive, out-of-plane separation of structural panels, or longitudinal movement between the edges of the panels at the sidelap. To this end, the sidelap between adjacent structural panels is joined in such a way as to create resistance in-plane along the length of the sidelap (e.g., parallel with the decking) to thereby carry loads (e.g., resist forces) and prevent displacement between the structural panels along the sidelap. In addition, the connection of the structural panels at the sidelap also creates resistance out-of-plane along the sidelap (e.g., perpendicular to the decking) to thereby carry loads and prevent one panel lifting off an adjacent panel. As such, the connections along the sidelap and connections of the panel to underlying supports maintains the structural integrity of the diaphragm strength of the panel system.